


Comfort In Failure

by NervousOtaku



Series: Writer's Block Short Stories And Plot Bunny Dump [14]
Category: Original Work
Genre: mental health
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-10
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:07:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25830313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NervousOtaku/pseuds/NervousOtaku
Summary: I feel most comforted by the mistakes of others, not the successes.
Series: Writer's Block Short Stories And Plot Bunny Dump [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1472354
Kudos: 1





	Comfort In Failure

I feel most comforted by the mistakes of others, not the successes.

When I say this, everyone panics, calls me a sociopath, asks me if I want brain surgeries to go wrong or houses to collapse. But that's not what I mean.

What I mean is I feel comforted when I'm in my woodshop class and I declare I've sanded something enough, only for the teacher to declare that if I give it a few more seconds on the belt-sander it'll be even better, but when he tries it snaps in two.

I mean when the screenprinting teacher is giving a demo on t-shirt inks and mixes things in the wrong ratio so the paint bleeds out beyond the design.

I mean when the janitor has to put up a sign warning that the floor is extremely slippery because they mixed up their bleach and wax when mopping.

I mean when the bus-driver has to let everyone off a block past their stop because the completely forgot that stop was on the route and drove past it.

I mean when the teacher locks themself out of the classroom and has to track down the building super to get the class back in the room.

I grew up in a community that punished mistakes. My parents did their best to teach me that mistakes happen, that everyone makes them, but my anxiety combined with the expectations of the world to create a perfectionist terrified of doing the slightest thing wrong. So seeing small mistakes, from professionals especially, comforts me. It reminds me that we're all human, and no one is perfect.

So I take comfort in the woodworking teacher needing to remake part of my project, in the screenprinting teacher taking an extra hour to clean up and redo the demo, in having to walk an extra block, in falling on my butt on a waxed-up floor, in dancing around outside the locked classroom because my wallet's in there and my ride leaves in five. Because if they can make these tiny, minor mistakes, then I can afford one or two here or there.

I don't have to be perfect. No matter what my anxiety says.


End file.
